Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1887-01-06


who as specialist in diseases Of the
brain has wide reputation, is engaged
in writing little book about dreams
and dreamers. In discursive mood
the doctor talks about the psychologi-
cal phenomenon commonly spoken OF
as dreams in most entertaining way.
Generally" said he, the other even
ing, @we think of nothing so swift as
the electric current, and yet fash OF
lightning is q slow coach compared
with the rapidity with which upon oc-
casion the human brain operates. Moth
ing shows this in so striking q manner
as the wonderful performances of the
mind in dreams. The events of years,
to the most minute detail, are recalled
in second, and purely imaginary
events, covering years and decades,
are pictured so as to be retained per-
manently upon the mind, and are con-
jured up in the hundredth part of q
minute. Some years ago q friend OF
mine related to me the particulars OF
striking proof of this fact. He had
been nursing another friend whose ill
ness was such that he required con-
slant watching. My friend had been at
his bedside for nearly ten hours. A
little French clock stood in an adj
joining room which struck the half
hours, and thus gave notice of the time
to administer the patients medicine.
At two o'clock dose of morphia had
to be given the sick man, and the nurse
was waiting for the little clock to strike.
He was very sleepy, and could with
difficulty keep his eyes open. Pres
emily the first tinkling stroke OF the
hour sounded. At that moment my
friend fell asleep in his chair. He
dreamed q most wonderful dream, the
details of which it would be tedious to
relate Just now. The events in the
dream were spread over three years,
during which time he had been to
Paris, to London, to New Orleans, and
made innumerable trips by land, lake,
and river. His vision began with q
wedding and concluded with an execu-
| ton, when the dreamer saw his own
wife hanged. The most minute details
| of life and travel and adventure were
distinctly portrayed, and my friend es-
| timated thet a novel of two big vol
umes could be written in merely out
lining the events of the vision. When
he awoke with start at the climax OF
the execution, he heard the French
clock strike one. Surprising that he
had been asleep several hours, he felt
some alarm. His patient, however,
was sleeping quietly, and when he
went into the other room to look at the
| clock he was astonished and incredu-
lous to find that the stroke of the clock
he had heard upon awaking was but
the second stroke for two o'clock, and
that his wonderful dream had occur
red between the two strokes of the
hour.
"But this is not at all an unprecedent-
ed occurrence. 1t is related of an
English clergyman who fell asleep in
his pulpit during the singing that he
dreamed the events of life before he
'awoke, to find that his slumber had
lasted only during the singing of sim
gle line"
"Can the brain act coherently during
sleep?" asked one of the doctors curl
GUS little audience.
ooh, yes; that is we'll established,
and has but recently, in a striking Incl
dent, been further verified. Canon
Knox Little, of Manchester, dreamed
that he wrote hymn; remembering il
upon waking, he wrote it down on the
fiy-leaf of handy book. He then fell
asleep .aaain----When he awoks ths
second time he had forgotten the words
of the hymn, and supposed that all o.
the incident had been dream, but
when he looked at the fy-leaf in the
book he found there, sure enough, the
verses he had written down, and which
are now incorporated in several hymn
books in England.
at is q matter of history, as we al
know, that the poet Coleridge com
posed his celebrated fragment 'Kubli
Khan while asleep. He fell into {
doze while reading 'Pincha's Pilgrim,
and was in slumber for several hours
When he awakened he remembered al
entire poem which he had composed
during his sleep. He at once seized {
pen and wrote down the part of it tina
has been preserved, but was called
away when he was but half through
and was never able afterward to re
member the balance, so that the poem
has remained as fragment. Tartini
the musician, composed the Devil
Sonata under the inspiration of
dream, and mathematicians have SOLVED
problems in their sleep which the,
were unable to master while awake.
but" continued the Doctor, after
slight pause, strange as these unac
countable phenomena may seem Their
is vet more curious fact in relation I,
dreaming which has never been suffi
GENTLY noticed. If dream be but
: baseless fabric, to what unsubstantia
and elusive thing shall We compare tn
dream of dream? The thing happen
often, but is so frequently mingle,
with the fantastic medley of the dream
itself as to be seldom clearly defined
A very good friend of mind who live
in West Philadelphia some month
ago related to me the following dream
of this kind which many years ago dis
: turbed his slumbers, and which, be
cause of its strangeness in being
dream within q dream made grea
impression upon him and fixed itsel
indelibly upon his memory. L wa
sleeping said he, and fell into
dream, in which imagined that wa
in q sick-room talking to visiting ply
: stefan about the patients condition.
z thought that was tired and sleepy, an
the doctor kindly advised me to tax
!, q nap, offering to remain ut the pa
Z TENTS bedside while 1 obtained som
rest. / dreamed that / threw mysel
upon sofa and slept, and as / slept
thought that 1 dreamed of terribl
= thunderstorm, and that 1 was awaken
& ed by O binding flash Of lightning